Before starting the final composite, I tweaked the light and made some paint-over sketches in order to have the ideas in place before beginning the final composite (Fig.10).

Fig. 10

Compositing

Because I didn't have too much time to create this image, many of the problems were solved at the compositing stage, with the help of textures and digital paint. And so, I rendered some 3D elements separately and made some render passes (Fig.11), to get better control over the time of the compositing process.

Fig. 11

As I mentioned before, I didn't have too much time to do the 3D stage, so the image was tweaked with Photoshop. It wasn't a straight forward process; I experimented with a lot of textures, colour corrections, the lighting, matte painting, visual effects, and so on. The girl's hair was hand-painted, and the alien's light effect was a photo manipulation. I used some photos and textures to retouch the image, and I think the 3D here was used just as base really, as a lot of the image was done finally in Photoshop.

The main goal of the image was to create a hot environment, at sunset, and to pull the central point of the image to the contact zone of the girl and the alien - somewhere in the girl's face and the main arm of the alien.Â Fig.12 shows the number of layers used, and the image before and after the final compositing work.

Fig. 12

Final Image

I hope you found this "Making Of" useful.

I want to thank the 3Dtotal team for this opportunity, and the readers for following this "Making Of". If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me. See you soon and thanks!

Malanjo (Forums) on Wed, 16 June 2010 7:43pm Oh! I remember this one! =) Did it for the great 3D Creative Magazine, almost 2 years ago. Is really good to remember it now, to see how I did things in those times.Grrr, miss those times, now is difficult to have time to do personal stuff and contests, lots of work to do... Once again, thanks to ALL 3D total team (especially to Lynette), you guys helped me a lot in my exposure, evolution and to find my path in that year (2008). If I'm in a comfortable position today, is much due to you, because you gave me an opportunity to show my worth.Big thanks and all the luck to all of you,-Miguel

DaddyDoom (Forums) on Wed, 16 June 2010 3:07pm Great piece from a truly talented and gifted countryman!Whooooot!

Chunkymunky (Forums) on Wed, 16 June 2010 2:47pm A really nice breakdown of how this image was created. Some lovely modelling and then sculpting work. Lighting I think personally could have been alot brighter but I suppose the darkness adds more mood. Great read thanks :)